The early part of Eric Winston’s professional football career was defined by stability.

Winston was drafted by the Houston Texans in 2006, and played there for six seasons and even signed a contract extension after his second season. But after the 2011 season, Winston was released by the Texans and two years later the former Lee star is looking for a team again.

Winston spent the 2013 season with the Arizona Cardinals, helping them to an 10-6 record, and missing out on a playoff spot. But Winston’s contract was only for one year and when the season ended last weekend he became a free agent again. Now he’s waiting for the phone to ring again.

“Every offseason is different,” Winston said from his home in Houston. “It took me a long time to find Arizona and the year before I signed like the second day of free agency with Kansas City. It’s hard to say because everything you think you know about this league can be proven wrong pretty quickly.”

After his release from the Texans in 2011, Winston signed with the Kansas City Chiefs and played their for the 2012 season but was released when Andy Reid took over as head coach.

Winston had to wait several weeks before finalizing a deal with the Cardinals for this past season. Winston started all 16 games at right tackle for the Cardinals in 2013, who had a resurgent season and were in the playoff mix until the final week of the season in the ultra-competitive NFC West.

Winston said moving to different teams was frustrating, and tough on his family, but he said a good part was being able to learn another offensive scheme.

Winston said in three years he was a part of three very different offensive schemes. Now former Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak used a zone blocking scheme, while at Kansas City, Winston played for former longtime Patriots assistant Romeo Crennel.

And last year, playing for first-year Arizona head coach Bruce Arians allowed him to learn another scheme, which Winston said is tough on tackles because Arians wants passing routes to develop down the field.

“It’s a little bit tough in a way, but it’s been fun and I try to make the best of every situation,” Winston said. “The football nerd part of me enjoyed being in different systems, seeing how different protections work and different schemes are run.”

The Cardinals began the season with a 4-4 mark before their bye in week 10, but then Arizona won six of its final eight games, including upending NFC West champion Seattle to end a 14-game home winning streak.

“When you get into camp it’s hard to wonder how good we really are, and preseason games aren’t really good barometers,” Winston said. “When we started to get into the season we started to figure it out but it was still a work in progress and absolutely we kept improving. I’ve not been on a team at this level that improved as much as we did during the season. How much team improvement we had was really remarkable.”

Winston said re-signing with the Cardinals is a possibility and said there’s a solid nucleus of players there. He added that he felt like he left Kansas City on good terms as well.

Health-wise, he said he feels good at this point in his career, but would like to get some stability back and not have to switch teams so often.

But he also knows that’s part of the business.

“I still hope I’ve got a couple of more seasons left in me, and that’s what I’m looking forward to,” Winston said. “When you get to this point, you want to be on really good teams that have a chance to go deep.”